Yechezkel Shraga Lipschitz-Halberstam. Kuntress Divrei Yechezkel.

(HOLOCAUST).

Bamberg

1948

Hebrew text.

I. Alfasi, Encyclopedia LeChassiduth, Letter “Yud,” col. 186-88.

Scarce and important slim pamphlet written by a Chassidic Rabbi encouraging the surviving Jews of Europe to restart their post-Holocaust lives in Israel and not to settle in America. He states that since the centers of Torah in Europe are now utterly destroyed rabbinic pre-war objections to Israel no longer apply. Although he cites a complaint in the name of the Satmar Rebbe concerning the hedonistic atmosphere of America (p. 5) he notes that the Lubavitcher Rebbe is seeking to return many Jews to their spiritual roots (p. 6). Ultimately though he feels Israel is still to be preferred as there is less chance of assimilation than in America. The author (1908-94) was born in Ungvar and raised by his grandfather the Stropkover Rebbe, R. Abraham Shalom Halberstam. He was a descendent of both R. Chaim Halberstam of Sanz and R. Aryeh Leib Lipschitz of Vishnitza (author of Aryeh Devei Ilai) hence his double name. He served as Rabbi and Dayan in Jablonka and Bergszasz before his deportation to Auschwitz in 1944. After the Holocaust he worked alongside the Klausenberger Rebbe to lift the spirits of broken-hearted Jewish survivors. He was appoined Chief Rabbi of Bamberg and the districts of Frankonia later becoming a central figure in Munich and circumcising hundreds of children. He emigrated to Israel in 1949 settling in Ramlah where he greatly influenced the Sephardi population. He eventually moved to Meah Shearim succeeding his uncle as Stropkover Rebbe in 1954.